De La Hoya vs Mosley II: Oscar Looking For A Sugar Sweet Revenge

By Janne Romppainen

04.09 - They met last time three years ago. Back then, Oscar De La Hoya was the reigning WBC welterweight champion of the world and Sugar Shane Mosley had risen up in weight to fight him. De La Hoya was the slight favourite but Mosley won that bout by a thrilling, close split decision. After that, Mosley has fought six times whereas De La Hoya has climbed into the ring four times. So much has happened in that period of time that they are now nearly where they were three years ago: De La Hoya is the reigning WBC and WBA light-middleweight boss while Mosley has gotten up in weight to challenge him. Again, De La Hoya starts as the slight betting favourite.

The career of “the Golden Boy” De La Hoya has been a march from success to success, from a mega-fight to an even bigger payday. After his amateur career where he won the Olympic gold medal he has won a professional world title in five divisions already (if the WBO belts are counted). He has fought and beaten all-time greats such as Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez and bested a whole bunch of top fighters, Fernando Vargas, Ike Quartey and Rafael Ruelas just to name a few. His success in the ring, model-like looks and a nice behaviour in public have brought him thousands of fans around the world, millions of dollars and a cemented all-time greatness status. His original plan was to retire before he had turned thirty and he could well have done that.

However, his other plan was to retire as undefeated, but that didn’t happen. In 1999, he dropped a questionable decision to Felix Trinidad. That fight didn’t really tarnish his image since many felt that De La Hoya had earned the victory. In the next year he was beaten again, this time unquestionably, by Mosley. Ever since De La Hoya has announced that he wants a revenge. Trinidad has already ended his career but Mosley is still there for De La Hoya to fight. And fight they will, on September 13, after a little more than one week.

Sugar Shane Mosley has had a little different path in his career. His professional fights begun with much less noise than his foe’s. Mosley was a very good amateur but he lost in the USA Olympic trials to Vernon Forrest and didn’t make it to the Olympics. As a professional, it took him four years to climb to the championship ring. In 1997, he captured the lightweight title by defeating Philip Holiday. Mosley wasn’t a superstar that also the boxing outsiders would have known but inside the boxing world he quickly gained respect. His handspeed was comparable to Meldrick Taylor. He also had real crack in his punches: he knocked out nearly all of his opponents. He had a beautiful, exciting fighting style that reminded the style of some of boxing biggest legends. He soon received his nickname “Sugar”, which is one of the biggest compliments a fighter can get as it reminds people of fellows such as Sugar Ray Robinson and Ray Leonard.

After Mosley had more or less dominated the lightweight division he went up in weight to get bigger fights and receive bigger purses. He got his chance to meet De La Hoya in a mega-fight and he took it by out-pointing his famous foe. After that victory, Mosley was on his way to super-stardom. The Ring magazine hailed him as the best fighter in the world. All boxing fans around the world praised his skills. Also he had the million-dollar smile from which De La Hoya was so famous of. He was just settling to his new status when suddenly, it was over. He lost his title stunningly to his former foe Vernon Forrest, who knocked him down twice and gave him a solid beating over twelve rounds. Mosley got his rematch. It was a tactical, close fight but at the end of the day, Forrest had defeated Mosley again.

Mosley’s path in the welterweight was then blocked so he went up in weight again to look for new opportunities. His first fight in the new division against Raul Marquez ended into a no-contest after three rounds. Now, in only his second bout in the weight class he challenges De La Hoya.

There are certainly a lot of variables in the fight. As said before, De La Hoya is the slight favourite, but Mosley upset the odds last time too. Everything indicates that it will be a close fight that could eventually turn either way and where the small factors will decide the winner. What those factors are, here is a list of some that in my opinion will be significant:

Motivation

This shouldn’t be a problem for either fighter. As mentioned before, one reason De La Hoya has still continued fighting is that he wants to have a revenge over the guys that he has lost to. De La Hoya has always been known as a fighter who gives his best every time he steps in the ring and now his motivation might be stronger than ever before.

Mosley is known as a warrior too. He hasn’t ducked challenges in his career, a fact which taking this fight at this stage of his career demonstrates. The one thing that might tip the scale in Mosley’s favour is that he simply has to win now to stay in the big mix. Third loss in a row in a big fight would spell the end for him. Even if De La Hoya lost, his reputation could take it like it did the last time. He could still go up in weight and challenge for example the middleweight boss Bernard Hopkins in another mega-event. If Mosley loses, his career might be over, so that might give him the extra motivation here.

Advantage: Mosley

Confidence

Usually in rematch situations the edge goes to the fighter who won the first encounter. He knows that he can defeat his opponent, he has done it already. Confidence is a weird thing however. Even the best of fighters can lose it after just one loss. De La Hoya is mentally a very tough fighter. He has had close, thrilling battles where he has been in the jaws of defeat but he has never panicked under fire and he usually is able to come back from the tough situations to win. This says a lot about his self-trust, it is on a very high level. The two losses he has had haven’t seemingly done him any harm and the beautiful destruction of Fernando Vargas must have boosted his confidence even more.

With Mosley, there is still a big question mark. In the De La Hoya fight he did show magnificent self-believe, after a hard first half of the fight he came back to turn the fight in his favour. How did his two losses against Forrest affect him is the big question here. In the first fight he took a bad belting. In that fight he was knocked down twice, which was something he had never experienced before in the professional ring. In the rematch he was a little gun-shy and too cautious to be effective, which indicates that he had self-doubts about his chin.

If Mosley has recovered well from the Forrest fights, then the edge would be his, but according to his rematch with Forrest and to the fact that De La Hoya’s confidence level is known to be great, I give The Golden Boy the nod.

Advantage: De La Hoya

Power, chin and stamina

In the department of the physical tools, the situation is very much alike it was in their first fight. De La Hoya was known as a murderous puncher in his days at light- and light-welterweight. In the welterweight he didn’t carry quite the same power, but knockouts over the likes of David Kamau, Oba Carr and Derrel Coley demonstrated that he still could crack some. Also when he came up to his recent division and was taken to the distance by Javier Castillo, questions were raised. The fights against Vargas and most lately Yory Boy Campas showed eventually that he had settled well to this division too and had enough strength to compete against anybody.

De La Hoya’s chin has been questioned sometimes in the past but not anymore. The Vargas fight where he ate loads of leather by one of the biggest punchers of the game showed that his jaw still holds up. De La Hoya has fought at least half dozen of very big punchers, has suffered a couple of knockdowns but has never been even close of being stopped. Also his stamina seems to be as good as it has ever been, although now it will probably be tested more than in years.

Before the last time he fought De La Hoya, Mosley’s physical strength was questioned too. At lightweight, he was a huge puncher, probably better even than De La Hoya. However there was little proof about whether his punches would have the same effect against bigger men. His chin had held up easily as well, but De La Hoya was expected to test it in a new way. That time, Mosley passed all the tests with flying colours. He hurt De La Hoya more than he was hurt himself, and his stamina was one of the deciding factors of the fight. Now, the same questions have been raised again. The short fight against Marquez didn’t tell us much about his capabilities in the 154lbs. Mosley did look ripped and muscled, but the looks can be deceiving as we know.

A new, even bigger suspect is Mosley’s punch resistance. He took some solid wallops by De La Hoya without flinching, yet Vernon Forrest was able to floor him twice and came very close of stopping him. De La Hoya couldn’t do it last time, but he almost certainly carries at least as much power as Forrest. If he is able to catch Mosley with his feared left hook or the sneaky lead right he showed against Campas, what happens? Also Mosley has been known for his great stamina in the past, but will it be the same with the added weight?

Advantage: De La Hoya

Tactics

Even though there are lots of important factors in the fight, the tactical battle will be the one that decides the most. Whoever has a better fight plan and is able to go through with it will win the fight. Both have the tools necessary to win, it is about who can figure out the way to do it.

Last time De La Hoya used the most plausible tactic possible, yet it proved to be an error. De La Hoya was (and is) naturally the bigger man, so he took the fight on Mosley and tried to make his strength decide things. For the first half of the bout, the tactic paid off as he had expected, he won four out of the first six rounds. Then the tide turned. Mosley was able to take everything he offered and finally it was Mosley’s edge in handspeed and stamina that were too much for The Golden Boy.

Even though De La Hoya still is the bigger man, he most probably won’t try that tactic anymore. He is a very versatile fighter who can change from an aggressive slugger to a slick counterpuncher during the fight. Now he has one big edge compared to the last time: he has now seen how Mosley can be defeated. I expect him to follow the same plan Forrest used: to stay away, dictate the tempo with his beautiful jab and look for chances to drop in his right cross. As a result, the fight might not be as entertaining as the first one was but if that gives him the win, it is a rather small sin.

Mosley has great skills as well, but he hasn’t shown the same versatility. Mosley is most impressive when his opponent takes the fight to him. Then Mosley can use his best weapons, the blinding handspeed, great defensive reflexes and deadly body punches. However, when Forrest used his reach to stay off from him and looked for counters in their second bout, Mosley was surprisingly weaponless. Is Mosley prepared for the chance that De La Hoya fights him that way? What will he do? If Mosley is able to force his way inside and fight his fight, then he will be doing well. But my hunch is that De La Hoya’s better versatility will give the edge to him.

Advantage: De La Hoya

Prediction

About one month ago, I was convinced that Mosley would win again. Then I changed my mind. And the odds are that I will change my mind at least once or twice still before the fight actually starts. This is just to demonstrate how interesting fight it should be.

As you can see from everything listed above, there is a clear pattern. De La Hoya is the more proven, we know pretty well what he is capable of at this stage of his career. Nearly everything said about Mosley includes an if or a question mark. This is why I think, at this moment, that De La Hoya should win the fight. There are simply too many concerns about Mosley. For him to be effective, he has to succeed in all of those categories. If he indeed has a suspect chin, if his confidence is not there, that might be everything that it takes for De La Hoya. However, I feel inclined to add one more IF. If Shane Mosley is able to pull it all together and fight at the highest level of his skills, then I think he will pull it off again. There are just too many variables for me to pick him.

Whatever happens, a good fight is almost guaranteed. Two colourful, skilful, big-hearted gentlemen are going to solve it between them. Once and for all. It doesn’t get much better than this folks!

Comments/questions: janneromppainen@hotmail.com